is Raising feeder mice for you?

[infernalis]

We are feeding 1 BP, 1 Savannah Monitor, 2 Milk snakes, 1 corn snake and several larger adult garters.

The initial costs were 1 large tote box $5, 3 female mice & 1 male mouse $10 a bale of pine chips $10, a bag of mouse feed $5

So for $30 initial investment, we have saved hundreds in only a few months time.

Oh and water bottles & a feed dish, a couple bucks more.

Once the mice begin producing, they will drop babies like crazy!!

[jitami]

Seere, I don't know if you're in a rural or suburban area, but try to find a local mouse breeder who sells them out of their house or small reptile store. I posted an add on craigslist in my area and came up with two people who breed and sell mice & rats out of their homes. One charges 70 cents for pinkies and fuzzies and one 90 cents. I was paying about twice that for one pinky at Petco!

[Loren]

I agree with the 3 options here so far besides petco- local breeder (usually found with craigslist), breed your own, or order from mice direct or rodent pro.
I cant imagine paying petco prices for anything over a couple snakes.

I feed 65-85 snakes, most of them rodent eaters, and I raise my own mice and rats. It was an investment to get started, but I found used lab cages on ebay, and now that everything is bought, I just buy dogfood.
Just make sure you read the parts of this thread that talk about the smell.

[Loren]

Do you have any friends that might split an online order with you? Then you wouldnt have to save up as much at a time, but you could still fill the box enough to make the shipping average out to a reasonable amount per rodent.
A full box costs only slightly more to ship than a partially filled one, at least with rodent pro.

[infernalis]

Interesting day on the mouse farm.

Anyone remember the photo from last week?



Well this morning another litter was born, and the newborns were slowly getting shoved to the bottom of that pile

There is another breeder mom who does not get along well with other adult mice, she is kept alone in a tote with just her babies.

Her recent litter is now in the "hopper" stage of development, and she is weaning them away from her, yet she is still lactating fine.

So we moved a dozen or so of the more developed "fuzzy" mice from this pile over to her home.

Well, she immediately "adopted" the strange babies, and now she gets to be a super mom for a while.

Worked out really good, I just checked on everyone, and those newborn pinks are getting plenty of milk, the moms are getting some rest, and the solitary mom has not even noticed that I stole a few of her kids

[ssssnakeluvr]

nice photo....wish my mice would get busy!!!!!!!!!

[Aundrea]

awwwwwww I just love that pic. Its just so cute. But poor mom gets no ALONE time with all them babies. I would go crazy LOL

[GartersRock]

Interesting! And yes, I love that pic too!!

[Lori P]

Don, I thought mine would never start breeding!! Mice can be so difficult... I lost another pregnant momma last week, too, and man, I hate that. No reason that I knew of, she just was dead in the feed dish. But hang in there, it seems like once a couple of them start, and you can get a good solid family unit established, they go nuts.

Here's one of my worries... will the females just breed till they drop or will they stop breeding at a certain age?? I hate to think I'm allowing them to breed to death...

[ssssnakeluvr]

I have found in the past that after a while when they get older they just stop breeding. I have had some successful breeding groups in the past..but this batch just aint quite into it yet.....